Happy Fall, Y'all!

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

SIGN UP FOR ALL CLASSES HERE

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No classes on Thursday 10/17 & Wednesday 10/23!
Due to my show on Oct 19 & 20 (see below for a great deal on tickets!), I will not be holding classes on Thursday, October 17. Also, with my fabulous parents visiting from the East Coast that weekend, I will be taking Wednesday, October 23 off to spend time with them. ALL OTHER CLASSES will be held as usual!

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Gentle Ballet is back at the Ebell starting 9/30

A new series of 5 one-hour very basic ballet classes begins today at 11AM at the Ebell Club of LA, a women's philanthropic organization in Los Angeles. If you or someone you know would like to take the class, they can sign up here. Even if you missed today, you can come next week!

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Halloween classes on Thursday 10/31!
Basic Ballet at 6:30PM and Open level Ballet at 8PM will both include super fun Halloween-inspired music. Feel free to wear a costume! I might even bring treats.
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Celebrating 10 Years of LPB!
In October 2014, I left Le Studio and started my own business teaching ballet to adults. I am so grateful to the previous owner of Inspire who opened her studio to me when I was looking for space and I am even more thankful to all of my students who found me after I left Pasadena. I can hardly believe it's been ten years! Thank you, everyone, for making my work so much fun and bringing me joy every time I step into the studio.

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LPBC News

4-ticket Friends and Family deal!

SWEET SORROW is live October 19 & 20, 2024 at the Lanterman Auditorium in La Canada, CA!
If you use the code FF15 you can get 4 tickets (can be adults and/or children) for only $119!

Tickets are on sale now!

Need some inspiration?

Read this really awesome interview I did with Victoria Thomas from Local News Pasadena

Sneak a peek at this video from Halloween Every Night.

Enjoy this video from Ariana, one of our amazing remote dancers as she takes you Behind the Scenes.


Dancers from our show want to know why YOU haven't purchased your tickets yet.

Top row: Amy, Gwen, Lauren, Olivia.
Bottom row: Alexes, Gracen, Patty.

It's still summer in the studio!

 

September 2024 schedule Wednesdays 6:45-8:15PM - Beginner ballet 8:15-9:15PM - Beginner jazz (just like a super fun Dance Party!) Thursdays 6:30-8PM - Basic ballet 8-9:30PM - Open level ballet Saturdays 9:30-11AM - Beginner ballet 11AM-12PM - Pointe/pre-pointe Sundays 10-11:30AM - Intermediate ballet 11:30AM-1PM - Basic ballet SIGN UP FOR ALL CLASSES HERE Please consider posting a review! If you have posted one already on Yelp, Google or FB, thank you SO MUCH! And if you haven't, I would truly appreciate it. Positive words from current students really encourage new dancers to try a class. Thank you in advance! Review on Yelp Review on Google Review on Facebook     LPBC News Early bird savings until 9/7 for the return of "Sweet Sorrow"! October 19 & 20, 2024 at the Lanterman Auditorium in La Canada, CA! Have you missed our zombies and our tragic star-crossed lovers? Well, mark your calendars for their rise from the crypt this October. And if you can't see it in person, we'll be streaming on Halloween weekend. Even if you've seen this show before, we have NEW characters, NEW music, NEW storytelling. We are never satisfied - we constantly evolve to respond to our audience and give them more reasons to come back to the theater. READY TO BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW? Tickets are on sale now with an EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT!! Get them at Eventbrite! See you at the show! Check out some of our dancers in rehearsals for the stage. Werewolves and Ravens, oh my!

Happy Halloween! Ballet & jazz & zombies - oh my!

 Students, please take note I am not teaching on 10/11 and 10/12!

October 2022 schedule - In-studio and online! Sunday (Inspire Dance Studio) 10AM-11:30AM - Intermediate ballet 11:30AM-1PM - Basic Ballet Tuesday (Live Arts LA) *Note below!* 7-8:30PM - Beg/Intermediate ballet Wednesday (Inspire) *Note below!* 6:30-8PM - Beginner ballet 8-9PM - Beginner Jazz Thursday (Inspire) 7:10-8:40PM - Basic ballet Saturday (Inspire) 9:30-11AM - Beginner ballet 11AM-12PM - Pointe/pre-pointe SIGN UP FOR ALL CLASSES HERE Slight changes to the schedule: Sunday 11:30AM-1PM class is now Basic Ballet - the SAME level and class as on Thursday nights so you have 2 opportunities to take this level class and build your confidence, strength and vocabulary. Thursday Basic Ballet begins at 7:10PM now. We will finish at 8:40PM. No classes on October 11 and 12 so I can spend time with my family who are visiting for our show (psst! get your tickets now! Link below!). Get ready for Halloween class! This year we'll celebrate Halloween on Sunday, October 30 in both classes (10AM & 11:30AM)! Plan your costume now - I'll bring the fun music and the treats! This is a GREAT class to bring a friend who has always wanted to try ballet but might feel shy. We have a lot of fun and there's no experience necessary for the 11:30AM Basic class! LPBC News "Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet" is back for its 5th and last performance before it returns to the crypt until 2024! LAST CHANCE On Stage: October 8 & 9! Tickets on sale NOW for my company's iconic show, the sequel to Romeo & Juliet. This year we have a few surprises in store, including new dances, new music and new characters! Can't make the stage show? No problem! We'll be streaming a cinematic edited version all Halloween weekend! Tickets are available for the stream now too! **If you are interested in a group discount, please contact me or the company and inquire. We love bringing in groups of audience members.** October 8 & 9 Lanterman Auditorium 4491 Cornishon Avenue La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011 Get your tickets here!

Tickets for Sweet Sorrow™ A Zombie Ballet are ON SALE NOW!

Have you gotten your tickets yet?

No? Why not!

This year's show is going to be even bigger and better than last year (which was pretty awesome!) and I know I have said that before but this time, it really will be.

How?

New characters:
Benvolio - Romeo's cousin and possibly in love with Rosaline
Werewolves - what's a supernatural ballet without werewolves?

New music:
Witches!
Werewolves!

New venue:
The brand new gorgeous Manoukian Performing Arts Center!

And of course, many dances have changed because I have such tremendously talented dancers. Roles that weren't en pointe are this year. Some dances are longer, some are more complex. I have two lovely pas de deux!

But most important is story. Last year we introduced some plot lines and character relationships but this season those are all more fully developed. Where things might have been confusing, I have tried to simplify or clarify. Where music wasn't quite supportive of the movement or emotion, I changed it.

When: Saturday October 26 at 7PM & Sunday October 27 at 4PM
Where: Manoukian Performing Arts Center, 2495 East Mountain St, Pasadena CA 91104

Until the end of September, we have discounts on our General Admission seats (we also have reserved seating for the first seven rows but honestly, there is not a bad seat in the house!).

Here is the link to our Zombie Ballet website where you can find the discount codes and links to purchase tickets.

Come see us!

Please help us launch Sweet Sorrow™ for 2019!

This year's production of Sweet Sorrow™ A Zombie Ballet is

BIGGER!

More characters, more dances, more story!

BOLDER!

Special effects - what???

BADDER!

1 word: Werewolves!

We need YOUR help to make this happen. 

**If you can donate to our Indiegogo campaign, we would be so grateful. 

**If you can also spread the word to others about it, we would be doubly thankful.

**If you can donate, tell others and come see the show in October, well, we would be over-the-moon happy.

 THANK YOU!

Schedule update!

Hello beautiful local dancers!

This is to let you know I will not be teaching next Monday 10/22 and Tuesday 10/23, which are the days immediately following my company's performances (see link below if you are interested!). My parents will be visiting from the East Coast so I will be spending some time with them before they return home.

ALL classes are as usual for the rest of the week and leading up to and including the morning of the first show. If you have any questions, just ask!

Sweet Sorrow A Zombie Ballet tickets

Happy dancing!

Fun links! Fun fun fun!

Hi all!

Rather than put out a whole bunch of emails that clog up your inbox or blog posts that you lose track of, I figured I'd just put all my cool info here and you can peruse at your leisure.

Leigh & Company In the News!

First up, we were at ScareLA being all zombie-ish and ballerina-y and generally having an awesome time like we always do. And lots of people captured it on video! A couple are below because they featured us really nicely.

Here are Vic Mendoza's highlight reels (a short one and a longer one, both very cool, thank you!):

Teaser reel by Vicscover Art

Full reel by Vicscover Art

Here is IdeateTV's interview with me, which I am so very grateful for:

 IdeateTV interview with Katrina Lee

Next, I was profiled at the Dance Network blog by Bridget Conrad and although there was a lot of focus on me, the talk turned to my company and its vision, which Bridget absolutely got spot-on. I could not have presented our company's mission any better. Thank you SO much for this:

Dance Network blog profile

Third, this is something I wrote for Dance Advantage's website, a review of Terez Mertes Rose's forthcoming novel, A DANCER'S GUIDE TO AFRICA, as well as an interview with Terez herself. I'm a big fan of her and her books so it was great to get to read a new one ahead of its release. Be sure to pre-order it!

Review & interview with Terez

And finally...our production! Discounted tickets for "Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet" available until the end of September. Get your tickets to either show and the Sunday Afterlife party!

Tickets on sale!

Happy reading and happy watching and, of course, happy dancing~

ScareLA Horror Convention and Saturday sub

Hello all!

For my local dancers, I just wanted to give you a heads up that this weekend is ScareLA, the huge horror convention in DTLA that my company performs at and also has an exhibitor's booth.  This will be our 3rd year at the convention, the second hosting a booth, and we are ALWAYS thrilled to be there.

The horror community has been so kind and generous to us. They are big fans of the zombie ballerinas and they beg to get their pictures taken with them.

Even if you aren't a horror fan, the atmosphere at the convention is fun and sometimes chilling. This year the organizers are making it dark so it has more of a haunted feel rather than an office supply store. Ha!

If you are in the area and planning to attend, please stop by and see us at Booth #108A. We'll also be performing 3 times on the stages:

Saturday, August 25th:
1:15PM - Monster Stage
4PM - Scarywood Street

Sunday, August 26th:
4:30PM - Scarywood Street

We will also be doing occasional "flash mob" type performances at the Sliders Space so keep your eyes peeled for us there.

Here is more info for the schedule and what you can expect at ScareLA this year: ScareLA website

So what does this mean for my classes this weekend? Nothing! They are all happening as usual. I will be teaching my first two classes at 9AM and 10AM but my 11:30AM pointe class will be taught by my friend Carol Guidry, who is an amazing dancer and teacher. You will love her!

6 weeks til showtime!!

Hello beautiful dancers and friends of dancers and zombie lovers and friends of zombie lovers!

Did you know...

--"Zombie Ballet" won the second episode of the Gong Show this summer?

--We were invited to perform for the second year in a row at the ScareLA horror convention in Los Angeles?

--An hour long production is coming in 6 weeks?

On October 8, at the Lanterman Auditorium in La Canada Flintridge, the Leigh Purtill Ballet Company - the nonprofit company I formed in January - will present the premiere of "Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet." Shows are at 4PM and 7PM. Tickets are on sale now through Eventbrite; $25 in advance and $30 at the door.

Don't wait! Get your tickets now!

Thank you very kindly for your support!

Update: ScareLA, Tips from the Pirouette Workshop and Show Tickets!

Wow, it CAN'T be August already, can it? That means the "Sweet Sorrow" world premier is just 2 months away! Oh my goodness! But first there is ScareLA.

Last year, the horror convention was held in Pasadena. It was our first time there and we had a blast! And the audience loved us too, so the con asked us back for more. This time the convention will be in downtown LA. We'll be doing the dance again (always a bit different, of course!) and we'll also host a table and sell merchandise and show tickets. Want to see us?  Get tickets at our website, zombieballet.com and go to "Events." If you buy ScareLA tickets through that link, we'll get a small percentage too. Thank you!

And to tease you, this is what it looked like last year:

And if you want to get your tickets to the show in October, we've got those on-sale now at Eventbrite:

Buy Show Tickets

And finally, tips from the workshop on Sunday, which was loads of fun, even if most attendees did have sore legs the next day!

Pirouette Tip #1: wrap your arms in first position like you're holding something that doesn't want to be held.

Pirouette Tip #2: practice getting over your leg by springing to releve degage derriere from a 4th position demi-plie. The longer you can hold this position, the better and more stable your turn will be.

Happy dancing (and turning and ScareLA-ing)!

My zombie ballet on The Gong Show! June 29!

Hello friends~

The Gong Show is back! And my zombie ballet is on it!

Get out the popcorn (or set your DVR) on Thursday, June 29, 10PM, on ABC, and check out my zombies. I can't tell you if we got gonged by the celebrity judges or not - you'll just have to watch and find out.

Enjoy!

Trailers!

Hello beautiful dancers and friends!

Many of you following me on Facebook know the Leigh Purtill Ballet Company's first production of SWEET SORROW, A ZOMBIE BALLET is October 8, at 4PM and 7PM at the Lanterman Auditorium in La Canada. If you're in town, I hope you'll come see us! And if you're not in town, then why not get a cool t-shirt instead?

But you don't have to live around here to enjoy the trailers that Rachel Swetnam (our Juliet!) put together. Check them out! The first one is a bit of a teaser:

While the second one is a behind-the-scenes peek! (Hey, that's me!)

Enjoy! And please share! We want everyone to know about our new company and our first big show.

Happy dancing~

A weekend consumed by Zombies!

(see what I did there?)

This past weekend was the ScareLA Horror Convention in Pasadena, CA at the convention center. Two awesome days of fun and thrills and a few scares. I am so proud of my dancers who performed my zombie ballet not once but 8 times! They performed six times in what was sort of like a flash mob arena and the other 2 times on a stage.

Here are a few photos of them getting made up by the pros at EI Makeup (a school for makeup artists):

And they were minor celebrities too! I would say "major" except we have to reserve that for Elvira who was the convention's star. Wherever we walked, they were stared at, oohed and ahhed over, and sooo many people begged to have their pictures taken with them (including me!). Here are a few:

These are just a handful - there were so many! Old and young, they all wanted their pictures taken with the zombie ballerinas.

Besides the makeup, the costumes were just phenomenal. And that is due in large part to the work of Jen Marchain, who was instrumental in getting us into this convention. She's a big-time zombie addict/Walking Dead fan who even flew to San Francisco once to participate as a zombie in an episode of Mythbusters! She either instructed the dancers on how to make the costumes or she zombiefied them herself. Here are a few close-ups:

 Of course, I had to have one myself! Here I am with classical zombies and scary zombies:

Happy zombie dancing!

Performance times for Zombie Ballet at the ScareLA convention

Planning to come to the ScareLA Horror Convention? Then make sure you "carve" out some time to check out my Zombie Ballet!

And don't forget to use the discount code, scareshow, to get 10% off your ticket to the convention.

Saturday, August 6

1:45pm Slider Stage 
2:45pm Main Stage (Before Trend Setters of Horror)

4:00pm Slider Stage

5:30pm Slider Stage

Sunday, August 7

1:45pm Slider Stage

2:40pm Main Stage (Before Universal Panel)

4:00pm Slider Stage

5:30pm Slider Stage

 

Halloween in Summer! ScareLA Horror Convention

Hi everyone! Still wondering if you should attend the ScareLA horror convention this August 6-7?

Check out this short promo and maybe it will help you decide!

Buying tickets? Use promo code scareshow and get 20% off~

Halloween in August!

Friends, dancers, horror fans! My Zombie Ballet dancers have been invited to perform at ScareLA this year and we could not be more excited to eat your brains--I mean, show off our dance moves.

ScareLA is a horror convention that draws thousands of fans to see cool presentations, meet stars of horror movies and TV shows, and to learn new techniques and tips for the haunting season. There will be tons of exhibitors, lots of classes to take, and scary cool stuff to see.

Like zombies doing ballet to classical music!

This year, my dancers number a full dozen, which I believe constitutes a horde. That's a LOT of zombies! One of the neatest things for us is that the horror convention has arranged for professional special effects makeup artists to prepare the dancers for the stage. (I can hear you now, "What???!!! That is so awesome!")

If you love The Walking Dead or old school horror like Elvira...
If you dig haunted mansions and scary creatures...
If you want to learn how to make your own blood (ew!!)...

And for sure if you want to see my beautifully horrific dancers...

Then come to the ScareLA convention in August!

Where: Pasadena Civic Auditorium
When: August 6 & 7
Website: ScareLA

And to SAVE 20% on tickets, use the promo code: scareshow

Take (s)care, everyone~

From Page to Stage!

It feels like it's been a million years since I wrote the opening lines to my novel, Sweet Sorrow:

The whisper blew a chill across her cheek. It tickled her eyelashes and curled around the delicate pink shell of her ear. The voice of her beloved echoed in her head, calling her name, and despite her best efforts to reach out to him, her body remained stubbornly rigid.

And now it's a ballet and Nancy Evans Dance Theatre will be putting on the first half of it in less than two weeks! I can hardly believe how far it's come and how beautiful it's shaping up to be, even in its more grotesque moments (remember, there are zombies!).

When you write a novel, you have no idea where it will end up: in a bookstore or online, most likely, or just stuck on your hard drive. It's unlikely you think it will be a ballet! Except that's how it all began, with a phrase I used in my ballet class about six years ago. Costumes, lighting, bottles of potions and even a crypt! Who could have guessed when I tossed a short but intense adagio into a Halloween ballet class that it would evolve the way it has?

The most exciting part for me has been to see how excited other people get when they talk about it or hear about it. Dancers have been overwhelmingly positive; friends and family have been extraordinarily supportive; and I've had the luxury of collaborating with Nancy and her dancers, who have shared their gifts with me as I develop the story.

For the next week and a half, I'm not going to plug the show relentlessly nor will I bombard people with emails entreating them to SEE THE SHOW! And DONATE IF YOU CAN! lol...beyond today, of course. 

Here's the link to the crowdfunding campaign. This is the last week of it, just a few more days. If you can donate, that's awesome. If you can share the link, that's awesome too. As you can see we've raised 1/3 of the funds, which is still amazing - and we thank every single person who has donated or shared. You are all fantastic people and I wish/hope that you can also see the show come to fruition!
  

Crowdfunding and Sweet Sorrow: Bringing Zombie Ballet to Life!

Design by Jennifer Logan/NEDT

It's nerve-wracking to put your personal stuff - your thoughts, your dreams, your hopes - in front of other people and await their response.

As a writer, I spend many hours in front of my computer and living in my head that when I finally send a book or short story out to others for feedback, I want to crawl into a hole and eat Fritos.

As a teacher, I create dance on a regular basis and see nearly immediately whether something works or not, if a student can't handle the material or the combination is too awkward.

But as a choreographer (and I'm a newbie to the modern/contemporary ballet world), you have to wait until the show, when lighting and music and costumes all come together to support your choreography. You watch the audience for their response: do they laugh when they should or shouldn't? do they think your choreography is interesting or pedestrian? do they understand the story or are they confused by what's happening? All dance is a work in progress, so when the audience gives you feedback, you can makes changes for next time.

So how does crowdfunding fit in? Well...it's somewhere in between. It's not a performance so your audience can only see bits and pieces of what you're doing. In this case, it's costume sketches, a written description of the project, and some cool photos from a previous performance. You tell people what you need, what you hope to do, what you want to provide and then you wait.

It's nerve-wracking. Did I mention that?

A little history:

Me with the Zombies of 2013

"Sweet Sorrow" began quite humbly, when I "zombified" an adagio to use with Prokofiev's "Dance of the Knights" from "Romeo & Juliet." It looked really cool and was fun to do so I gave it to some teen students at a summer ballet intensive. That looked cool too so I made it a bit bigger and then got a great group of students to perform it at ARC in Pasadena for ArtNight Pasadena. We got a huge audience response so we did it again the following year with more people. And then I added on to it. And on again.

I realized there was a much bigger story to this. I came up with the backstory to the piece and then fleshed it out (so to speak) until it was a full-length ballet. Then I wrote a novel.

Courtesy Cortney Armitage

About a year later I approached Nancy Evans Dance Theatre about collaboration. They are a really creative and exciting company, small and young and eager to try just about anything. We seemed to be a good fit for each other. After a few months of working together, we showed a couple of pieces in late January. Encouraged by the response and eager to get more of the story out there, we kept working. Very very hard. We expanded the story and the cast. We re-worked some things that were awkward or confusing last time around. We clarified the story and the characters, the motivation for movement, the connection to the music and the development from one scene to the next.

Courtesy Karina Jones

On May 29-31, we will present the first act. From a few phrases to a full act! I can't believe it! It's scary and amazing but I don't feel alone in doing this. I feel supported and encouraged. I love how the dancers have taken ownership of the characters and made adjustments because they know their roles inside and out. I love how Nancy Evans Doede has helped me direct the performance, how she sees the big picture and has encouraged me to try different things, to trust the dancers, to give them the tools and let them see what they come up with. It's been a tremendous growth opportunity for me - one I am extremely blessed to have. Not everyone gets a chance to spread their wings.

The ultimate goal is a full-length ballet, which we hope to put on next Spring. Whaaaaat? That's crazy! And super exciting.

To support the May performance, NEDT has launched an IndieGoGo campaign. We're trying to raise $10K to fund the production of the show, including costumes, marketing, dancer pay, and so on. If you can donate, fantastic! If you can share the link with others, awesome! If you can attend the show in May, wonderful!  Any contribution of any kind will be immensely helpful.

So please help get the word out and bring Zombie Ballet to life!  Thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my Undead Heart.

My first time collaborating with a professional company!

Beautiful dancers, teachers, choreographers and dance aficionados~

I'm so excited for the show with Nancy Evans Dance Theater this weekend (January 31 and February 1). A 9 minute section of my zombie ballet will be shown as part of the Friends/Family/Dance/Festival. It's a work-in-progress but I'm really thrilled at how good it looks already.

I wrote an article about collaborating with Nancy and her dancers at Dance Advantage. I interviewed Nancy herself about her work and working with outside choreographers and offered up my own list of helpful hints when you're working with other people. Here is a link to the article:

How To Work Well With Others

If you'd like to see the show this weekend, just go to Nancy's website to order tickets. And if you come on Sunday (which is Super Bowl Sunday, who knew?), simply say "What Bowl?" at the door and you'll get $5 off your ticket - for the Sunday matinee only.

Get show tickets here. Happy dancing!

Upcoming event: Friends/Family/Dance/Festival with NEDT

At the end of this month, Nancy Evans Dance Theatre, a modern dance company based in Pasadena, California, will be hosting its semi-annual festival which is always a lot of fun. They are an exciting, young and vibrant company, generously including top-notch talent in their programs. Before I ever had the opportunity to work with them, I loved attending their shows. They have a wonderful mix of humor and gravitas and they are master storytellers.

That, in fact, is one of the primary reasons I approached them about collaborating with me on my Sweet Sorrow zombie ballet. Nancy and her dancers are intelligent and thoughtful and they bring experience and their own ideas to a project, specifically their characters. I knew they would be ideal to work with. So as much as I say I'm setting the ballet on them, I'm actually collaborating with them. In the nearly four months I've been working with them, I have never once heard anyone say they couldn't do something. They try everything I ask and if my ideas don't work the way I thought they would, they are quick to help fix the problem. They don't impose their will on my material or me; rather, they seek ways to make my ideas come to fruition in the best way possible.

So mark your calendars for Saturday, January 31 and Sunday, February 1, Porticos Art Space in Pasadena. You can see a tremendous program - remarkable work from Nancy herself and other talented contemporary and modern dance companies. And you'll see 2 pieces from my zombie ballet: a group work titled Infection and a pas de deux titled Plague Pit. I'm so excited for people to see them! They are still works-in-progress but I'm thrilled about how they're developing.

More information can be found at Nancy's website: www.nancyevansdancetheatre.com